SUPPLY CHAIN ARTICLES

• Can America's Retreat On mRNA Be Europe's Opportunity?

  With HHS winding down mRNA vaccine development under BARDA, could Europe seize the opportunity to lead in mRNA innovation? Exploring the policy shift's implications.

• Moderna & The Global mRNA Supply Chain: Regulatory Lessons Learned

  One of the most important reminders I took away from Moderna’s experiences ushering its mRNA vaccine onto the global market is that a commercial manufacturing process must also be accompanied by a commercially ready supply chain. Though sufficient physical volumes of each raw material and a redundant supplier network are necessities, physical scale is not the only “CQA” for which we must account when commercializing our supply chain. 

• Inside Alnylam's Playbook For High Volume siRNA Production

  As one of the first companies to establish a chemoenzymatic ligation platform, Alnylam's Maines and Nechev are in the perfect position to espouse wisdom on the practical aspects and remaining challenges of implementing enzymatic ligation at a large scale. Here in this installment, Maines and Nechev outline what they’ve learned thus far about the science of enzymatic ligation, while also paying credence to the unknowns and existing barriers that, as a frontrunner, Alnylam will inevitably (but willingly) be tasked with facing in the future.

• Picasso, Pick-Up Lines, & Personalized Medicine: mRNA's Path Forward

  Overall, my presentation on what the mRNA industry can learn from the artist Picasso singled out a few specific areas from which I felt our industry could garner greater inspiration and operational prowess. But given how “collaborative” many of these sources of inspiration are, I’ve introduced each of my takeaways with a surprisingly relevant (albeit bad) art-themed pick-up line. After all, if there’s one sector that knows it takes more than one to “tango,” it’s the mRNA industry.

• How Can We Move RNA Forward In Our Therapeutics Arsenal?

  RNA technologies, including mRNA therapeutics, have emerged as a promising drug modality. However, they have unique challenges. BioPhorum has dedicated a team to investigate these challenges and this Q&A shares their practical considerations for how to move this field forward.

• FDA Sets Recommendations For Predicting Dangerous Nitrosamine Impurities

  The FDA recently published a final guidance that sets a recommended framework for predicting the potential of nitrosamine drug substance-related impurities.